He didn't come away with anything to show for it, but Adrian Gonzalez launched fly ball after fly ball to deep left-center field during the weeklong road trip to Seattle and Oakland two weeks ago.

Perhaps the most dramatic was a shot he hit to the warning track off Felix Hernandez on June 28, a ball that probably would have been a game-winning home run in any other ballpark.

For a hitter who has spent so much of the season either hitting singles or not hitting at all, it was a subtle hint of what was to come.

"He's got the ability to drive the ball to all parts of the field," Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said. "When we were in Seattle and Oakland, he hit some balls really well that could have been game-winners into the gap that just died. Luckily, he didn't get away from that swing. He looks like he's on right now."

Is he ever.

The left-handed Gonzalez hit a solo home run over the Green Monster on Wednesday night. He took a level swing at a fastball down in the zone and launched it deep over the fence in left-center field. That came after he hit a go-ahead three-run home run over the Green Monster on Monday night, jumping on a hanging slider and launching it on a similar trajectory to deep left-center field.